I am just wondering if there was any way to distinguish between the many poultry respiratory diseases. My chickens are acting fine, laying well but they have had a clear nasal discharge, sneezing, one is coughing, and there is a rattling sound when a few of them breathe. There is no funny smell like I had read about. I had treated with Duramycin-10 and things seem to get better but I stopped after a week and was wondering if I should have kept going for 14 days. I'm really broken-hearted about all this because I have just received D'uccle and Langshan chicks in hope of breeding and selling these birds. The chicks are not exposed to the adult birds as of yet but now I am wondering if I should give up hope of breeding them since I don't want to expose anyone else's flock to this respiratory crud. If anyone can give me advice I would greatly appreciate it. I have read just about every article I can find on the matter and am still unsure as to what I should do. Thanks in advance!

Welcome to BYC! I'm so sorry that you are posting your first post under these circumstances.

The best way to tell for sure what respiratory disease your chickens have is to have tests run, possibly by a state vet.

However, respiratory symptoms in chickens almost always signify disease, which will cause the affected chickens to remain contagious. One of the more common, as i'm sure you've read, even transfers the disease through the egg.

As painful as it is, i would certainly recommend you cull this affected flock entirely and start over after disinfecting their enclosure.

hey everyone i was just wondering ....my buff sussex chicken has a wat u call stuffy nose and is sneezing and has yellow-cream poo its runny.by wat iv looked up on the internet it seems it has crd is this true how can i fix it. she is only 14 weeks and i bought 2 of them off different people even though they are 2gether in the same house the one without the disease doesnt seem to be picking it up ???? wat should i do?????

They are all my pets so I guess I will just have to keep them until the end of their days. I have 7 cornish rocks that in a separate pen over 100 ft away do you think that they could catch this? It doesn't seem to travel in the air because I did have the first chicken that showed signs quarantined in a separate pen but he escaped and my chickens only started getting sick after they shared the same water bowl with him. My biddies I have are up off the ground where the big ones can't get to them and they have been fine, I have only been having to battle with coccidiosis with them.

I absolutely do not recommend anyone buying adult or young chickens from people they don't know. I've had chickens for 4+ years now and only recently encountered problems when I purchased 4 gold sebrights and 2 turkey poults from someone. Since then I've had fowl pox (the dry kind), this respiratory crud and worms. It makes me want to give up on chickens entirely

Does anyone think that there may be a possibility of this being the wet form of fowl pox? I have also noticed my chickens shaking their heads and one of the sebrights stretching it's neck out like it is having problems swallowing.

I just checked my quarantined chicken. Sneezing is worse. She has not eaten today and she swallowing alot. I don't want to take any chances, so my husband is looking at her and we are deciding if we should cull. I don't want any of the others exposed. I wonder if I should treat the others with Duramycin or Tylan? Any ideas? This particular chicken is not a pet but several of the others are. It is just terrible that there isn't any site that someone can go to for ideas!!! I feel your pain!! At least I am looking at losing just one (for now) not the whole flock. I so enjoy chickens but this is a whole new ball game.......

Oh the sebright that stretches his neck also makes a weird nose and his comb has turned from dark red to very light pink. I have also been reading about gapeworms, does anyone know if this could be the cause of my bird's symptoms?

Tonight when I was waiting for everyone to walk into the coop for the evening and I heard raspy breathing. Knew this was bad, but lost track of which hen it was. Then, when I was out side the coop I could hear the sound again. I plan to sneek in their in a few minutes and grab the hen.
I am intrested in following this thread. (I will also search past post.) I understand I will need to cull, but now what do I do with the rest of the flock? Sanitize with what? Thanx

I don't know if this makes a difference but I looked inside the throat of the sebright roo that is stretching his neck. I couldn't really tell if had gapeworms but the inside of his mouth/throat is very pale pink. I am also having a slight green diarrhea in some of my chickens. All of these chickens are at least 7 months old by the way. About 6 weeks ago I lost a chicken or two and they had very little weight to them and that is what made me suspect worms. They virtually had no meat on their breastbone and my chickens are fed very well. Would really appreciate insight as how to distinguish between respiratory illness and gapeworms. I plan to worm them tomorrow just in case. I had used Piperazine but I know this is only effective against roundworms.